​Ariadne Labs: A Joint Center of Innovation at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the T.H. Chan Harvard School of Public Health launched an effort to improve the use of the World Health Organization's Surgical Safety Checklist in every hospital in the state of South Carolina in 2010. The Safe Surgery program aims to improve teamwork and communication in the operating room by leveraging the WHO Checklist as a teamwork and communication tool. This program also monitors the impact that the checklist has on culture and patient outcomes. Together with the hospitals in South Carolina we have created a robust implementation program to enhance the use of the Surgical Safety Checklist. Learn more by downloading our implementation guide.

This program has been expanded to additional health facilities across the United States. Today we are actively working with the hospital associations of North Carolina and Virginia as well as the American Hospital Association's Health Research and Educational Trust (HRET).

“One area of improvement that I have personally applauded is that of double checking pathology labels, names and specimens with the OR charge nurse, before leaving the OR, in conjunction with the post-operative debrief. I often perform several prostatectomies and biopsies on different patients, the same day. This has been a source of concern and paranoia to me, but there was never any structure, as a solo voice, to accomplish this process. The safe surgery initiative allowed this to naturally occur without fanfare, and I now sleep better at night knowing the path reports will be accurate to the correct patient”– Anonymous Surgeon

“Sometimes as a surgical tech you feel not “in the loop” with the patients’ pre-op health, history/issues because you don’t meet them pre-op. With the checklist everybody feels “in the loop” and because of that we are able to give better patient care. Knowing every detail and going through it when everyone stops, no music, no talking, it gives the patients the care that they deserve and that I would want for my family member to receive if it was them under the knife.”– Anonyous Surgical Technologist